Evidentiary provisions
12EE Evidentiary provisions
In proceedings under this Part a document purporting to be —
a true copy of an aerial photograph marked so as to identify, and show the boundaries of, land according to official survey; and
signed and certified by the Surveyor General as being a true copy of a photograph taken under the authority of the Surveyor General on the date specified in the certificate and as correctly identifying, and showing the boundaries of, the land according to official survey,
is, without proof of the signature of the Surveyor General, admissible as evidence of the matters so certified and of the condition, on the date so specified, of the vegetation on the land so identified.
A document shall not be admitted pursuant to subsection (1) as evidence that the land has been cleared contrary to this Part unless the court is satisfied that the Minister, an officer of the Department or a person acting with the authority of the Minister has entered upon and inspected the land for the purposes of ascertaining whether the land has been so cleared.
Where, in proceedings for an offence against this Part, it is proved that land has been cleared, the person who was, at the time the land was cleared —
the occupier of the land is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, deemed to have so cleared the land; and
the owner of the land is, unless the contrary is proved, deemed to have permitted the land to be so cleared.
[Section 12EE inserted: No. 97 of 1981 s. 3; amended: No. 25 of 1985 s. 97; No. 73 of 1995 s. 62; No. 38 of 2007 s. 14.]
The statute text is free to read above. View Pro plans to unlock the case-law research tools for each provision.